Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume III, Part 117

Author: Stout, Tom, 1879- ed
Publication date: 1921
Publisher: Chicago, American Historical Society
Number of Pages: 1144

USA > Montana > Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume III > Part 117

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HISTORY OF MONTANA

John Listerud after leaving home went to North Dakota and proved up a homestead eighteen miles south of Minot. He lived in North Dakota about ten years, and first identified himself with the Minot community in 1903. He was interested in the lum- ber business while there. For three years he was a merchant at Tioga, North Dakota, from there came to Montana, and on June 1, 1910, began his connection with Wolf Point. Old Wolf Point, while it has been a prominent landmark in this section of Montana for a number of years, was left a mile to one side when the Great Northern established a station, and Mr. Listerud was one of the first to

recognize in this station an eligible site for business enterprise. He established and became proprietor of the pioneer lumber yard of the town, and con- ducted it until July, 1913, when he sold it to the Rogers-Templeton Company. In the meantime, in the fall of 1912, he had built an elevator and en- gaged in the grain business, and in the spring of 1914 he built an electric plant with a flour mill in connection. He sold the elevator in the winter of 1915, and after that concentrated his attention upon the light plant and the flour mill. Mr. Listerud is one of those constructive business men who take pleasure in establishing new enterprises, and after seeing them well started are satisfied to dispose of them when the opportunity presents. In line with this policy he sold his light plant in February, 1920, and at present has only his flour mill, which is one of the live and growing enterprises of the region. He is also a stockholder in the Wolf Point Light Plant and in some other minor enterprises.

Mr. Listerud encouraged the incorporation of Wolf Point and was chosen the second mayor, but resigned before the expiration of his term. He also helped establish the first church in Wolf Point, at first the Union congregation and now used by the Presbyterians as a place of worship. He was the prime mover in starting the first school. Wolf Point was a part of the Glasgow District. Mr. Listerud, W. H. Smith and W. B. Everett furnished the capi- tal for building the first schoolhouse in the town. When the district was properly set off it reimbursed these gentlemen for the cost of the building. Mr. Listerud was appointed the first trustee of the sepa- rate school district.

In 1917 Mr. Listerud built at Wolf Point one of the best homes in Roosevelt County, an eight- room stucco house with basement and hot water heat, and with all the appointments of modern com- fort. He became an American citizen through the naturalization of his father, and has been steadily identified with the republican party as a voter. He and his family are Lutherans.

In Renville County, Minnesota, Mr. Listerud mar- ried Miss Minnie Haug, a native of Minnesota and daughter of John Haug, who came from Norway. Mrs. Listerud died in January, 1905, the mother of the following children: Hjalmer Horatio, a farmer near Wolf Point; Morris, secretary of the Wolf Point Electric Light Company; Edna Geneva, a teacher in Renville County, Minnesota; Eva, a nurse in St. Barnabas Hospital in Minneapolis; and Ruth, a student in. the University of Minnesota. In July, 1910, at Minneapolis, Mr. Listerud married for his present wife Miss Hilda Rongerud, who was born in Renville County, September 8, 1877, a daughter of Theodore and Carren (Nelson) Rongerud. Her parents were natives of Norway and her father came to the United States before the Civil war and enlisted from Minnesota in the Union army. The children in the Rongerud family were: Olaf, who died in Minnesota; Mrs. Emma Flaten, of Granite Falls, Minnesota; Minnie, Mrs. Andrew Vold, of

Maynard, Minnesota; Juel, of Seattle; Lena, wife of Irvin Lytle, of Burleigh County, North Dakota ; Mrs. Listerud; Clara, wife of Herman Wulf, of Minneapolis; and Mrs. Selma Flagstad, who died at Minneapolis.

Mrs. Listerud was educated in a seminary at Wil- mer, Minnesota, and in the Northern Illinois College at Dixon, and for more than five years was a teacher in North Dakota and Minnesota. Mr. and Mrs. Listerud have a son and daughter, John How- ard and Helen Dorothy.

Mr. Listerud had the satisfaction of seeing two of his sons join the colors during the World war. Hjalmer H. was with the Fifty-eighth Infantry of the Fourth Division. His first baptism of fire was at Chateau Thierry following the Marines. In the Argonne he was wounded by shrapnel October 4, 1918, and was in a hospital when the armistice was signed. He was invalided home and discharged at Camp Logan in the spring of 1919. The son Morris entered the Signal Service, but never reached the other side. After training in Missoula he was sent to Fort Leavenworth, thence to Camp Meade, and at the end of the war was returned to Camp Logan, where he was discharged and reached home in Feb- ruary, 1919. These brothers are members of the American Legion Post at Wolf Point.

JAMES CONLON had made himself an important factor in a large wholesale house at St. Paul before he came to Flathead County, Montana. He arrived in Montana at a peculiarly depressing time, when this state and the entire country were in the throes of the financial panic of 1893. Mr. Conlon took hold of a bankrupt enterprise at Kalispell, rebuilt and recreated it, and for many years enjoyed an almost phenomenal prosperity as a merchant. He is still active in business and is properly regarded as one of the ablest men of affairs in Northern Montana.

He was born at Port Henry, New York, a son of Charles and Agnes Conlon. He attended the public schools of his native town and in 1877 left the East and went to St. Paul, Minnesota. As a boy he clerked in a dry goods store, rapidly acquired a knowledge of the business, and following the impulses of his broad ambition for achievement he eventually became one of the original incorpora- tors of the Powers Dry Goods Company, one of the large wholesale concerns of St. Paul. He was in that business until it was sold.

Then, in the fall of 1893, he reached Kalispell and took over the bankrupt concern of the Kalispell Mercantile Company. During several following years he allowed no interest or diversion to inter- fere with a strict application to business, and also the strict application of business principles to his work, and before the close of the century he was proprietor of a business whose trade ramified out all over the Flathead country. The business was continued under his own name until January, 1904, when it was incorporated as the Conlon Mercantile Company. In July, 1911, Mr. Conlon sold the mer- chandise department to the Elliott Brothers Com- pany and has since concerned himself with other business affairs.

Mr. Conlon was president of the Kalispell Board of Trade. He is an Elk and Knight of Pythias and a democrat.

For the past twenty years Mr. and Mrs. Conlon have spent their summers at the head of Lake McDonald at Glacier Park. Their summer home is a unique and attractive one, consisting of a log house, with fireplace, broad verandas, and imme- diately around are immense pines, while in the background are the snow-capped mountains and in

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front the waters of Lake McDonald. Mr. Conlon has fenced in an area around his house, and en- joys the culture of beautiful flowers, vegetables and berries. He erected the fence primarily to keep out the bears and deer, which otherwise would destroy all the green vegetation. The Conlon sum- mer home is the chief place for the entertainment of Mr. and Mrs. Conlon's many friends, and an invita- tion to its hospitality is something greatly prized. Mr. and Mrs. Conlon also have one of the most beautiful homes in the City of Kalispell. The ca- reer of Mr. Conlon at Kalispell demonstrates the fact that a man guided by the right business methods and with a sufficient amount of enterprise can always succeed where others have failed. He is not only a thorough business man but throughout his residence at Kalispell has been a public-spirited and a gener- ous worker and contributor to the community. At Sioux City, Iowa, August 9, 1904, he married Miss May Sewell. Mrs. Conlon was born at Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, a daughter of John Sewell, and finished her education in a seminary at Fond du Lac.

ALBERT A. BIRUM. Exemplifying the spirit of the great West, Albert A. Birum has developed a pros- perous mercantile business at Saco under the cap- tion of the Birum-Nelson Company, but he is not a native of this section of the country, although a resident of Montana since 1900. He came into the world in Redwood County, Minnesota, on August 8, 1879, a son of Ener Birum. As the name indicates, Ener Birum was born in Norway, but from the youthful age of four years lived in the United States, his parents at that time coming to this coun- try and locating in Minnesota, where both later died.

Ener Birum grew up on the farm his parents had acquired, and in addition to farming learned the milling trade and followed it for thirty years. When he first went into that calling the old-time burrs were used to grind the grain for flour and feed, and he was one of the first millers to install the rollers invented to take the place of the burrs.

When war was declared between the two sections of his adopted country Ener Birum showed no hesi- tancy, but enlisted in a Minnesota infantry regi- ment, which was later assigned to General Grant's command. From then on until the close of the war he fought bravely and well, and after his honorable discharge he resumed his peaceful occupation of milling. During his military service, although he was in a number of engagements, Ener Birum escaped being wounded or taken prisoner. He iden- tified himself with the Grand Army of the Repub- lic, and continued a member of his local post until his death, which occurred in 1893, as the result of an accident in the yards of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad, when he was struck by a train.

Ener Birum was married to Anna V. Ortt, who was born in the United States, but was of German and French extraction. She survives her husband and lives at Hayfield, Minnesota. The children born to her and her husband were as follows: Her- bert L., who is a resident of Great Falls, Montana; Millie, who is the wife of Frank J. Berkheimer, of Milton, Utah; Albert A., whose name heads this review; and Ella, who is Mrs. Harry Baker, of Hayfield, Minnesota.

Albert A. Birum was reared at North Redwood, Minnesota, and attended the public schools of Red- wood Falls until he was sixteen years old, at which age he left school and did his first outside work as a farm hand. Subsequently he secured a place in the mill at North Redwood where his father had been employed, and when he left that place he came to Montana.

Mr. Birum was induced to take that step by his brother, who was agent for the Great Northern Railroad at Saco. After joining his brother Albert A. Birum worked about the station and picked up a knowledge of telegraphy so that in a few months was able to hold the position of telegrapher, but when a better position was offered him he took it and became timekeeper for a surfacing gang of the Great Northern Railroad, with headquarters at Havre. Until the spring of 1901 he remained in this work, and then came back to Saco, entering the employ of the C. W. Nelson Company, general merchants, and remained with it until 1906. When C. E. Taylor bought the business in that year he retained the services of Mr. Birum, and then when the business became the Saco Mercantile Company Mr. Birum was still one of the honored employes of the house. In the spring of 1909 Mr. Birum established himself in a business of his own at Dod- son, as a branch of the Saco Mercantile Company, but a year later returned to Saco and founded the firm of Birum & Nelson, L. B. Nelson being his partner. Following the death of Mr. Nelson on April 4, 1915, changes were made and in September of that year the present name, the Birum-Nelson Company was adopted. This company handles a general line of merchandise, coal, feed and lumber, entirely at retail. It has a floor space of 55 by 70 feet and a wareroom 25 by 70 feet.

Mr. Birum came to Saco when it belonged to Valley County, and he favored the county division movement which led to the creation of . Phillips County. In national matters he is a republican, hav- ing cast his first presidential vote for William Mc- Kinley, and he has voted for that party's presidential nominee ever since. He is a stockholder and director of the Farmers and Merchants Bank of Saco, and was a stockholder in the company which built the old Windsor Hotel, and of the creamery.

On August 15, 1906, Mr. Birum was married to Miss Nellie D. Nelson, a daughter of Rezin and Rhoda (Sutlieff) Nelson, natives ' of Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, respectively, and they were married in Minnesota. Mr. Nelson spent his life as a farmer and died at New Richland, Minnesota. During the war between the states he served in the Union army, and was fortunate enough to escape being wounded. Following the war he joined the local Grand Army Post, and was active in it until his death, in May, 1916, when he was over seventy-nine years of age. His widow survives him and lives at New Rich- land. She is a member of the Congregational Church, and he belonged to it too. Their children were as follows: Lee B., who was a partner of Mr. Birum, died leaving a widow and daughter ; Rezin, who lives at Appleton, Minnesota; Clarence W., who lives at Saco; Roy, who is also a resi- dent of Saco; Rex, who lives at Forsyth, Montana ; Earl, who is a resident of New Richland, Minne- sota; and Mrs. Birum, who was born at New Richland, Minnesota, August 20, 1884. She was graduated from the Waseca High School of Waseca, Minnesota, and came to Montana in 1904 as a teacher. For two years prior to her marriage she was one of the popular educators of Saco.

During the late war Mr. Birum was an active participant in raising funds for all of the war drives. Mrs. Birum belonged to the surgical dressing class of the Saco branch of Malta Chapter of the Red Cross. She belongs to Saco Chapter, Order of the Eastern Star, No. 81, and is now its associate conductress.

F. M. PLUMMER. In the history of one of the thriving smaller towns of Northwestern Montana,

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HISTORY OF MONTANA

Libby, the chief individual factor in business and citizenship has been F. M. Plummer, principal owner and manager of the Kootenai Mercantile Company.

Mr. Plummer came here when the site of Libby was one vast forest. Only a trail had been cut through the timber and all supplies had to be freighted fifty-five miles from the nearest railroad point at Smead's Spur on the Northern Pacific. Such were the difficulties of transportation that it cost $7 per 100 to get goods into the little locality inhabited by a few placer miners. Mr. Plummer had faith then as he does now in the wonderful possibilities of this section, and soon with a partner opened, in a small log cabin store, a modest stock of goods sufficient for the needs of his patrons. It is a mat- ter of great satisfaction that he has always kept his business a little in advance of present needs, and is now proprietor of one of the largest and most completely stocked department stores in Lincoln County.

Mr. Plummer was born in Calumet County, Wis- consin, a son of Josiah Plummer, and was reared and educated at Menasha, Wisconsin. He was still a young man when he came to Montana and found his location at Libby. His partner in business was Jesse Neff. Though a great timber region, not a saw mill had been established, and all lumber was sawed by hand and cost $200 per 1,000. Due to transportation difficulties, sugar was then sold at $25 per 100 pounds.

Not long after the firm had entered business, Miss Sivoli Neff, a sister of Jesse Neff, came from the East to visit her brother, and the visit terminated in a life job in Montana. She was born in Vir- ginia and had been liberally educated in Baker University in Baldwin, Kansas. Her visit to Mon- tana led to her employment for two years as prin- cipal of the Libby Schools, and then she became an equal partner with Mr. Plummer in his home and domestic life, and is also given much credit by him for her share in promoting their joint business prosperity. Mr. and Mrs. Plummer are republicans, he is an Odd Fellow and she a Rebekah, and their church is the Methodist. They have been co-workers in every good cause in their community and were liberal and heartfelt in their devotion to local war work. Mr. Plummer served as chairman of the Red Cross Chapter, and they gave the Chapter the use of a steam-heated room for the period of the war. Mrs. Plummer spent much of her time in Red Cross work. Mr. Plummer has served both as a member of the Council and as mayor of the city.

As a pioneer he was on hand to welcome the first railroad and has witnessed every important change in this section of Lincoln County. His labors have brought reward in the prosperity and the business he now enjoys, and he has given much of himself and his means to every important interest in the community.

The Kootenai Mercantile Company now occupies a magnificent store 100 by 127 feet, with basement and with outside warehouses. The store is now divided into four departments, for groceries, hard- ware, dry goods and men's furnishings, and a com- petent and skillful manager is in charge of each department. Mr. Plummer personally planned the present store. It is the fourth he has occupied since beginning his business career at Libby. The first was a small log structure, and each successor represented some progressive advancement in his business. The store is a model of perfect system and order, and it stands as a monument to Mr. Plummer's sound business judgment and also the prophecy of his faith in the future of his country.

Mr. Plummer was also one of the organizers of

the First National Bank of Libby and has been con- tinuously in the office of vice president.

L. S. WOODBURY. Aside from the mines and smelters one of the largest individual industries of Montana is the Great Falls Iron Works, founded thirty years ago by the late L. S. Woodbury. The business is a large and flourishing one today and has the special distinction of having its affairs guided and capably conducted by Miss M. Cerula Woodbury, daughter of its founder and one of Montana's most interesting women.

The late L. S. Woodbury earned a high place in American industries as an iron master, inventor and a genius in mechanical production. He helped to lighten the burdens of the world, and the iron busi- ness he established at Great Falls, while so important in the state, was only part of his manifold activities.

His many rare gifts were in part inherited from an ancestry of peculiar intellectual worth, displayed not only in the realm of mechanical invention, but in sound statesmanship. His first American ancestor was John Woodbury, who was one of the most his- toric characters in the old Dorchester Bay Company of Massachusetts, and was identified with the early history of Salem. The annals of Salem and Lynn, Massachusetts, carry many items relative to the ac- tivities of the Woodburys. The family is a numer- ous one in Essex and other counties in Massachusetts today, and nearly all of them trace their descent either from John Woodbury or his brother William. John Woodbury, who was born in England about 1579 came to America as one of the leaders of the Dorchester Company in 1623. It is said that he brought the first cattle into the New England colo- nies. About 1626 he moved to the localities after- ward known as Salem. In 1627 he returned to Eng- land in the interest of the colony, and thus became probably the first envoy or minister from New Eng- land to the mother country. One result of his labors while abroad was the colony under which Massa- chusetts Bay was governed for many years. He held many offices at Salem and in Massachusetts Colony. and was the first and only Lord High Constable ever appointed in this country.

A late distinguished member of the family, Charles J. H. Woodbury, of Lynn, who was a deep student of the annals of the family, wrote the following words : "While the Woodbury descendants have not attained the heights of fame or fallen to depths of notoriety, they have occupied from the earliest days of the colonies through the early times of the re- public, and, many I claim, are today in honorable and leading positions in local affairs, and have been frugal and industrious citizens. The early progeni- tors have not left great mansions nor even portraits, and all which that implies. In the wars with the Indians, French and English the name abounds on the rolls as privates, sergeants, lieutenants and cap- tains, and in latter days one of their number, a graduate of West Point, had a creditable career. In statesmanship the brilliant career of Levi Woodbury was reaching to the assured prospective for the presi- dency at the time of his untimely death." Levi Wood- bury was secretary of the navy, and others have been prominent in the church, in the law, medicine and finance. Two of the name, Joseph Page Woodbury and Tames Atkins Woodbury, gave to the world the fundamental inventions in working lumher by power, their inventions being the forerunners of all the marvelous wood-working machinery of the pres- ent time.

The grandfather of the late L. S. Woodbury was Seth Woodbury, a sea captain, who in the early days commanded many vessels in trade between America

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HISTORY OF MONTANA

and Europe. He lived to be ninety-six. L. S. Wood- bury was the only child of Seth Woodbury, Jr., a tanner and currier, who was born in Massachusetts, November 8, 1805, and died March 18, 1858, at the age of fifty-three. At an early day Seth Wood- bury settled in New Hampshire and conducted a tanning business. His wife, 'Mary R. (Batchelor) Woodbury, died in March, 1905, at the age of eighty- eight years. Both parents were natives of Massa- chusetts.

L. S. Woodbury was born at Nashua, Hills- borough County, New Hampshire, June 10, 1838, and was graduated from the high school. When he was twelve years of age he walked three miles from home to witness the arrival of the first locomotive of the Boston, Lowell & Naslina Railroad at Nashna. That railroad locomotive supplied him with the mechanical enthusiasm which inspired many of his subsequent years. On leaving school he went to work for the Boston, Lowell & Nashua Railroad in the shops at Nashua. He received a thorough training as a ma- chinist, and his work was occasionally diversified by experience as a fireman and later as a locomotive engineer. He was running one of the locomotive en- gines of that time when only eighteen years of age. Later he completed an apprenticeship in a factory at Nashua manufacturing tools, lathes and planers. Later he had charge of a machine shop in New Hampshire which made a great variety of horse- power machinery and agricultural implements. From that work he was called to the stern duties of par- ticipation in the Civil war, and entering the navy was assigned as a machinist in the North Atlantic Squad- ron, and afterward was promoted to assistant en- gineer. After the war he became general foreman of the Hope Iron Works at Providence, manufactur- ers of engines, boilers and other machinery. About 1872 he became consulting engineer of Sheppard, Morse & Company at Burlington, Vermont, and while there worked out a system for preventing dust from the machines in a lumber dressing mill by means of fans. While at Burlington he became a member of the firm of B. S. Nichols & Company, who manufac- tured several of Mr. Woodbury's special inventions, one of which was a hydrant for special use in mu- nicipal water plants in northern latitudes, with a de- vice that prevented freezing.

After a record of efficiency as an engineer and in- ventor Mr. Woodbury returned to railroading as master mechanic and superintendent of operation of the Burlington and Lamoille Railroad in Vermont.

In 1879 Mr. Woodbury came West to Michigan and subsequently was made assistant general super- intendent of the Calumet and Hecla Mining Com- pany, and later general manager of the Canadian Copper Company's mines in Ontario. As superin- tendent of machinery for the Calumet and Hecla Company he soon developed efficiency methods that more than doubled the production, and transferred much of the work from manual labor to machinery. It would be a long story to relate all the varied serv- ices he rendered the Calumet and Hecla Company during his ten years of employment. While there he designed and dimensioned a locomotive engine for the particular needs of drawing ore cars. This engine was built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works, and that company pronounced it the strongest locomotive ever made up to 1887.

In 1890 Mr. Woodbury resigned his position with the Canadian Copper Company to come to Great Falls, Montana, where he established the Great Falls Iron Works. He began that business with only half a dozen workmen and primarily to supply the needs of local smelters. He established his foundry a mile and a half from the then business center of Great

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Montana, its story and biography; a history of aboriginal and territorial Montana and three decades of statehood, Volume III, Part 117

Author: Stout, Tom, 1879- ed Publication date: 1921 Publisher: Chicago, American Historical Society Number of Pages: 1144

Author: Stout, Tom, 1879- ed
Publication date: 1921
Publisher: Chicago, American Historical Society
Number of Pages: 1144